Population structuring and dispersal in the highly pelagic Leach's storm-petrel: implications for the EU population ...

• Main Author: Bicknell, Anthony William James
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Plymouth 2011
• Subjects: Population genetic structure; Leach's storm-petrel; Stable isotope analysis; Dispersal; St Kilda; Oceanodroma leucorhoa
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24382/4233; https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/fose-theses-other/372

Dispersal is a fundamental process that shapes many aspects of population ecology and evolution. Dramatic local population declines brought about by anthropogenic-driven changes to ecological processes are unfortunately becoming ubiquitous and increasing the urgency to understand dispersal behaviour in many species. For species where direct methods of tracking movement and dispersal are unsuitable, other indirect methods need to be employed to understand and characterise these behaviours. The steep population decline, due to predation, at the largest EU population of Leach’s storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa (St Kilda, Scotland), and the potential part immigrant birds have in buffering this threat, highlighted the need to understand dispersal and connectivity of widely spaced colonies in this species. The implications for the persistence of local colonies and the wider population of Leach’s storm-petrels could then be assessed. A population genetic analysis of 9 colonies across the North Pacific and ...